Civil justice ruled on Tuesday in favor of the Merck laboratory by dismissing the 4,113 plaintiffs in the Levothyrox case.
The Lyon district court dismissed on Tuesday the 4,113 plaintiffs who were suing the Merck laboratory in the Levothyrox case. The German manufacturer was sued for “lack of information”, after switching to the new formula of the drug which would have caused sometimes serious side effects (loss of hair, cramps, memory loss, dizziness, mood changes… ).
“The court considered that Merck had not committed a fault in the obligation of information which weighed on it. But we will certainly advise customers to appeal this decision”, told Reuters Me Christophe Lèguevaques, plaintiffs’ attorney. “It is a big disappointment for me and for the patients who were waiting for recognition of the justice of their suffering. And they are told today that it is simply a sociological problem and not a legal one. These terms are not acceptable for the sick”.
Me Lèguevaques asked that Merck pay 10,000 euros in damages to each of its customers, on the basis of “attack on human dignity” for “lack of information”. Or 41.13 million euros in total. But the court found that the laboratory had worked in accordance with the rules.
Merck’s reaction
“The judge recognized the relevance, with regard to the regulatory framework in force, of the information system put in place during the transition, between March and September 2017, from the old to the new formula of Levothyrox” declares Florent Bensadoun, Legal Director of Merck in France, in a press release sent to the media.
And the document specifies: “Make no mistake, Merck has always heard the emotion of patients and, as such, moreover, has requested, in this procedure, medical expertise to better understand each of the situations. this is not a judgment against the feelings of patients. What was judged today is the relevance of the information system put in place around the transition from the old to the new formula of Levothyrox, during a well-defined period, from March to September 2017″.
The laboratory would like to remind you that “the information system for patients is strictly regulated by law, and does not allow drug manufacturers to speak directly to patients”.
Recall of facts
Thousands of people complained of side effects, some serious, when the drug’s formula was changed in February 2017. “I believed in a Cancer, I was in a really bad psychological state. I did some exams and my TSH (hormone that regulates the secretion of thyroid hormones, editor’s note) had fallen to a very critical threshold”, says Aude, 32, who has lived without thyroid for more than 10 years. “It was ten years that I was well and overnight, everything collapses”, laments the young woman.
A total of 17,000 cases of side effects were recorded, of which 5,062 were classified as serious, and more than 500,000 people abandoned the new formula of the drug. An investigation had been opened in September 2017 for “aggravated deception, involuntary attacks on the physical integrity and endangerment of others”, to which the prosecution had taken on November 30 “additional requisitions” for “involuntary homicide” by the Marseille prosecutor’s office after the death of a woman suspected of being linked to the new formula of the drug.
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